RE:krono inflation

If Krono farming is causing massive inflation, then how about making them sellable once? They bind to your character when you purchase them on the broker. This would totally eliminate the speculators market.

Problem solved or bad idea?

I haven't checked, but really it should be no worries imo. I mean if kronos go up, that's a player issue made by players. But I will play along. Guess I am just an "elitist" but who can't make 1000 plat a month for a sub? I can make 1000p+ a day when I work at it

The thing some ppl are doing atm is going to a server like AB buying all the krono's there for lets say 750p and since there account bound they log into a server like freeport and jack the prices up to 1.1kp on that server

I'm all for the free market, but we do accept limits. The question is, if Kronos were intended to cut out the infamous Chinese gold farmers, have they been cut out altogether, or have they adapted?

Now I don't know of that was the intent, but it makes sense to me. And if you accept that premise, and if you consider the evidence, that middlemen are make easy fortunes by buying up all the cheap Kronos and reselling them at huge markups, then you have to ask yourself whether or not the system needs to be tweaked.

There are only three possible reasons that Kronos are going up in price:

• Less people are buying them from Sony to sell on the broker -- aka Lack of Supply

• More people are buying them from the broker due to any number of reasons -- aka Rising Demand

• Hoarding or attempting to buy up all available units to then mark up and resell -- aka Market Manipulation

And NONE of those are Sony's responsibility to deal with. That's capitalism.

You can't claim 'that's capitalism' when it's Sony's product. By definition it's their product to deal with.

If Sony is happy with how Krono is being dealt with then fine. If they're unhappy then they can tweak it. It's their decision. They can base their decision based on their customer's opinions and input.

There are way to many pretend economists who understand nothing of economics.

It is simple, check the availability on the market place every day, those that are priced below, purchase and resell, if the amount is low on the broker the price goes up, if high the price drops a few plat. Buy low, sell high

You forgot about changes in the value of the currency. If the currency is valued less due to increased supply, then prices will go up. Since Krono prices remain steady in EQ1, it's probably not the value of the Krono that has changed, but rather the value of platinum in EQ2.

Au contraire!

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner, and Capitalism is two rich guys and one poor guy deciding who can afford to eat dinner. We as a society support democratic and capitalistic principals but not Democracy and Capitalism. There are all sorts of restraints on capitalistic markets. For example, many forms of market manipulation are not allowed because of the undesirable consequences that follow.

SOE didn't introduce Capitalism, they introduced capitalistic Kronos, and they did so for a reason. If their reason included cutting out Chinese gold farmers and capitalizing those game profits for themselves, and if the farmers had adapted and survived by manipulating the market, then SOE might decide to constrain the market further and cut them out entirely.

The current rules allow people who have never paid SOE a cent for a Krono to buy and sell them in a fashion that forces gamers to toil 2-3x as long to afford them, and SOE might well see that market manipulation as a problem. My "solution" to this was to only allow Kronos to be sold once. If they implemented that rule, then the farmer's market would be closed, and the upward price manipulation would be over.

Now it's up to SOE to decide whether rich wolves are taking advantage of their sheep.

When Krono prices swing down, it's because one guy bought one from SOE and is selling it. When Krono prices swing up, it's because the manipulators have bought that one (and a few others), and added them to their stockpile. It's plain to see that this is the mechanism at work and not that the supply of plat on the server suddenly doubled.

Where is that? Oh that's right. I must by a krono first, so I can have access to get the 'bag of platinum' loyalty reward. however I Can't afford that 900p+ Krono in the first place. I have NEVER seen 900p. I've barely gotten to 800p. I don't raid. I'm not in a guild that does raiding. I'm not seeing these huge amount of platinum that people seem to claim is falling form the sky. it took me a year of hoarding to get to 800p. but hey, I'm primarily a solo/duo player with a friend. so I guess all the super uber money must come from those group zones I can't do or those raids I wouldn't set foot in if someone had a gun to my head.

People have been buying and reselling commodities (items) in EQ2, since launch. It is a completely legitimate practice.

The entire concept of limiting the resale capacity of Krono, is the manifestation of an entitlement mentality that has no place in EQ2. Someone has as much right to buy (with plat) and resell a Cobalt Cluster, as they do a Krono. If you don't like that, tough. Nothing stops you getting your own, from the source of where the items originate.

Broker prices will only be what people are willing to pay. Gamers are not being "forced to toil 2-3x as long to afford them". The very notion of such is absurd. If Krono prices are too high, pull out your credit card and actually subscribe legitimately. And why should SOE care how much in-game effort someone has to invest in order to obtain Krono's off the broker? SOE already has the real money from the original sale of the Krono (via website). What happens after, is of very little importance to SOE.

If someone is selling a krono below the current market value, why shouldn't someone else buy it to resell? How can you argue that there is not additional platinum available after you argue that some people are now easily able to buy large quantities of krono to resell? Guess what, the krono sellers in EQ1 are also resellers. They too buy up the cheap krono and mark them up. But over there the prices have not increased, perhaps because their loyalty rewards for plat are long established and the market already factored them in. While over here veterans who don't need the vet rewards from the loyalty merchants are getting extra bags of platinum just for logging in and doing what they were already going to do.

You're argument assumes the antecedent, that market manupulation is okay. I am asking whether the "current" market value is the "fair" market value. I don't know enough to definitively answer that question, but I am tending towards saying 'no' based on what I now know about it.

I didn't argue that. I argued that the major contributor to this velocitus hyper-inflation is unregulated speculation.

Why can't you do group zones? Most can be done in like 15 minutes. Surely you have that time on occasion.
Making plat tips:
a) Buy 1 Gold Sub for a month with RL Cash. Claim your 450p a month.
b) Sell fabled from Solo zones. I assume you do those, and each item can easily go for 100p.
c) Sell Masters. I'm sure you get these, they sell.
d) Run Obelisk of Akzul (Or whatever its called) in Moors every day. You get 10-15p per run. Zone takes about 3 minutes start to finish with good run speed. Amazing how quick it mounts up.

There are Plenty of ways for solo players to make money now a days, just most bury their heads in the sand and think SoE is out to get them.

"Completely legitimate"? SOE says otherwise in their Terms of Service:

"I Introduction
Our website located at www.soe.com, including all of its subsites (typically, any web pages which includes station.sony.com or freerealms.com) and all software, products, features, games and services made available, displayed or offered by or through our website or subsites (collectively, "The Station"), is offered to you, the user, by Sony Online Entertainment LLC, a Delaware limited liability company with its principal place of business located at 8928 Terman Court, San Diego, CA. 92121 ("SOE"), and its suppliers, service providers, licensors and licensees (collectively, "Third Party Providers") subject to your acceptance, without modification, of the terms, conditions, policies and notices contained herein. Your use of The Station constitutes your agreement to these terms, conditions, policies and notices (the "Agreement").
....
The Station is for your individual, non-commercial, entertainment purposes only. Except as may be expressly permitted by SOE, you may not sell or exchange anything you copy or derive from The Station. As long as you comply with the terms of this Agreement, and subject to the terms of any applicable End User License Agreement for our games and services, SOE grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited right during the term of this Agreement to enter, use, perform and display The Station and everything on it. You agree not to interrupt or attempt to interrupt the operation of The Station in any way."

https://www.soe.com/termsofservice.vm

Ad hominem does not support an arument.

False analogy. Kronos aren't like anything else in the game. They're uniquely tied directly to SOE's ability to provide this game at little or no cost to consumers and (apparently) is part of their strategy to deal with Chinese plat farmers.

That is known as reductio ad absurdum. Nice touch, by the way, actually using the word "absurd".

I didn't make this up. I am simply reacting to what I've seen in the game and read on the forums. It is undeniable that the prices are inflated 2-3x by speculators. I don't argue that these gamers are forced to buy Kronos nor to play the game. I merely argue that players who choose to purchase Kronos to support their gaming habit must now earn 2-3x as much plat to do that because someone (Chinese gold farmers?) is buying them up at fair market value and reselling them at artificially inflated values.

I am a Krono seller and not a buyer.

SOE wants to maximize profits, and that is impossible when the market is artifically manipulated.

Well, I am no Economist, but I did stay at a Halas Inn Express last night!

It's not exactly a free market. One issue is the broker is free and unlimited for selling, but gives no option to buy. You have to spam channels for that, and then ornery old people like me put you on ignore.

EQ1 had an option to buy before EQ2 was released - you put the plat in escrow on your vendor with an offer for a specific item, and anyone can sell it to you at the price you listed. People can see the asking price of buyers and sellers, and can use the broker system to immediately cash in on the best offer available, rather than putting items up for long term sale. And if someone wants to buy and resell, they can do so much more easily, as long as they do it in public where anyone else can make a better offer.

Warcraft had a different approach - broker fees to the seller just for listing the item, so there is an inherent cost to hoarding and reselling, and listing items at ludicrous prices has a stiff cost. In contrast, I see items for ludicrous prices stay up forever since people think "It might sell, or I'll mark it down later" but they never do. I like the eq1 system better, personally, as the warcraft broker is too high maintenance.

Your first statement's incorrectness means that your third statement applies to yourself.

Actually, the moment the Krono is purchases, SoE's end of the transaction is done basically. They are just tied to what the initial product initially gave.
As soon as you have it in your inventory, it is Yours to do whatever you want with, as you have bought the rights to it.

Its like walking into a store, buying a voucher for $50, and then giving it to a friend. The store has no rights over what you do with that voucher, they are just legally obliged to honour it.

As soon as that Krono hits your bags, its value is worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it.

People also need to remember, that the Krono system is still officially just a test. It's never gone past being a trialled system, so if it keeps causing arguments, it'll end up removed, and then no one will have Krono .